How VLSI Revolutionized Semiconductor Design

In the early 1970s it became clear that integrated circuits were going to be a big deal. New electronics systems had the potential to remake modern society.

But as chips swelled to tens of thousands of transistors, designers began struggling with their increasing complexity. It threatened the advancement of the industry.

Then in 1980, two computer scientists, Carver Mead and Lynn Conway, released a textbook that sparked a semiconductor design paradigm shift. In this video, we look at how VLSI systems design revolutionized the industry.

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[Asianometry]

It feels weird to be releasing content considering what is going on right now in the world.

[drewwollin]

Very good. I was a master's student in electrical engineering at the University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, in the early 1980s. The place was abuzz with VLSI, although outside my research area. I was surprised how students could design their own chips and have them made. The video explains what was happening then. A very exciting time.

My own research was much more pedestrian but unique in the world, microcomputer control of controlled atmosphere apple stores. It is now used internationally as adaptive control of fruit and vegetable storage, where the controller monitors the response of the fruit itself, to dynamically and adaptively adjust storage conditions to give longer storage and reduce postharvest chemicals. Previously storage conditions were static.

[Struckgold]

I'm forever fascinated by the 'hidden hand' of government in cutting edge technology as evidenced by the DARPA spending on integrated circuits. Maybe an intriguing subject for a future Asianometry video?

[Hassanmohamed]

I think I am the First Asianometry Fanboy. Very proud of the growth, love all the videos.

[jecelassumpcaojr]

Great presentation! Some very minor observations: the term "VLSI" was already in common use before the Mead&Conway project. Mosis was an interface service for foundaries, but was not a foundary itself (you gave other examples of this, to which you can add Europractice). The key idea of Mead&Conway was to allow systems designers to create their own blocks instead of having to pass black boxes to specialized circuit designers. Some of the design would use standard cells, but for other parts you would connect transistors directly - for example doing a barrel shifter as a regular transistor lattice instead of a bunch of standard cell multiplexers.

[TerribleShmeltingAccident]

i used to attend columbus state university in pursuit of a programming degree (BS in applied programming.) the 4 year degree was a product of the university and 2 world wide corporations (aflac & synovus) coming together to offer what these companies needed their new hires to know. In my 2nd year i took "circuit logic, " and oh boy was it a pain to do so much math in binary. At the time i complained but afterwards was very thankful to have gotten a taste of why these things could be programmed the way they were. I saw nand and nor gates in my nightmares :D

[jwestney]

Fascinating! I grew-up admiring Steinmetz -- a local hero. Your analogy between AC power and VLSI blows me away!

[JohnnieWalkerGreen]

(9:45) Back in the 1980s, the term "internet" was not commonly used. There were "ARPAnet", "CSnet", "BITnet", "DECnet", "UUCPnet" (UUnet), "JAnet", and in the UK they were using reversed domain names (e.g. "uk.ac.cam" form cambridge).

[Waccoon]

My dad developed the standard block cells for GTE back in the day. The move to standard cells was a big deal at the time, since the company did low-volume runs for government use, but the chip designs were still very complicated. Later, GTE licensed a manufacturing process from Mitel, and my dad worked on the design rules for that, too.

My favorite stories involved the ones where they built SOCs around the 6502. When they started doing that, they wanted to put a 6502 core in the center and built the rest of the logic around it, but didn't know how to test the finished cores for packaging. My dad suggested to just use two test probe masks: one to test the pins of the 6502, and another to test the rest of the logic. For some reason everyone else thought it was a crazy idea, but it worked.

Testing designs was pretty hard back then. Before the introduction of standard cells, almost nothing worked on Rev 1!

[CloroquinaGames]

Lynn Conway has recently passed away. Her work lives on.

[reganhoward]

Great presentation. I was at Westinghouse Advanced Tech Labs in Baltimore in the early 80’s developing processes to accommodate VLSI designs. We were producing 1 micron geometries by ‘81.

[JonathanARae]

Thank you for putting this together for us. You deserve more followers. Your mom was right, I feel asleep the other day at bedtime listening to your paper.

[anticat]

A great video that gave my minimal understanding a new way of thinking about VLSI. As upto now, i only thought it would refer to the amount of transistors used. Your video explained it as something completely different with it being a design language using standard parts. At the end you refer to it fading. I would like a video on that change and current methods used.

[陳奕釩-ic]

5:31 "Allowed semiconductor designer to smoothly transition" is probably not meant to be a pun, but I laughed a bit too hard when I hard it. Tragically, Lynn Conway's transition than smoothly.

[tgwashdc]

Your narrative is wonderful and inspiring.

[smn]

6:01 "During an evening team brainstorming session". What a great way to say we were drinking and had an idea 🤣

[Palmit_]

Thanks for your research and presentation Jon. Again. clear and straight forward, yet detailed.

[robertpearson]

As a microprocessor designer, the Conway & Mead book is equivalent to 4 months of on-the-job training.

[michaeldinardi]

Thank you for the amazing and insightful video. I'm currently taking VLSI Design as an undergrad and it's my favorite course yet.

[frants]

Though I'm poor in math, your well-made videos help me to understand the complexity of that thing that someday will make Terminators movies a reality.